East of Skenfrith

The River Monnow forms the border between England and Wales for several miles, but at Skenfrith there is a small section of the river's east bank in VC35 - most of which is in tetrad SO42Q.  A stop in this eastern outlier last week produced very little of note on a roadside, so this morning I made another visit to the tetrad - on a lane at St Fraed's.  Highlight was abundant Eurhynchium schleicheri, including one patch with sporophytes (I've only seen it fruiting twice previously).  Also of local interest were Porella platyphylla and Mnium stellare.  There's still the Monnow itself to do, with access along a riverside footpath, so this far-eastern Welsh tetrad should scrape above 75 in the end.

Eurhynchium schleicheri has characteristically crowded upright branches;

this patch looks squashed because I had to take it home for a photo (I forgot my camera again).

One of the underground stolons typical of E. schleicheri.

Henrhyd Falls and Penwyllt

A Good Friday expedition with Bea and Johnny included a walk behind Henrhyd Falls (which Bea had visited once, but which totally amazed Johnny), fossil hunting in the limestone of the Penwyllt quarries, and then a cwtch between Bea and some horses on the WTSWW Allt Rhongyr reserve.  My first Swallows of the spring flew past near Seven Sisters.

There were a few brief bryological distractions:

Rhytidiadelphus subpinnatus by the path down to Henrhyd Falls - first found here by Graham

An intriguingly appressed Plagiochila-like liverwort on the rockface behind the waterfall;

I hoped it might be Pedinophyllum interruptum but the leaf insertion was wrong.  However...

 

 

The leaf axils of the Plagiochila held a spherical translucent fungus, which isn't Epibryon plagiochilae -very odd!

Isothecium-like Eurhynchiastrum striatulum on wooded limestone pavement at Allt Rhongyr

Tortula subulata (poor pic, sorry) at Allt Rhongyr;

there was also some Anomobryum concinnatum and Reboulia here

We bumped into Graham, Jackie and Connor on their way to Gower; I wonder whether Graham turned his eyes away from burial chambers and towards any bryophytes...

Rhossili Eurhynchium

A few patches of a rather small, compact and shortly-branched E. striatum were noted growing on a Limestone exposure at the southern end of Rhossili Down, and looked odd enough to compel me to bring some home to check for E. meridionale. I can't find any photographs of the leaves of the latter on line, but Smith shows meridionale as having rounded-quadrate rather than rectangular alar cells. Whilst the cells weren't as rectangular as shown, I'm reasonably satisfied this is just striatum. I thought it was worth posting a few pics to illustrate how this species can appear when growing exposed on coastal slopes. Main associates Trichostomum brachydontium, Saccogyna viticulosa and Fissidens dubius. As always, any comments on the id welcome.

Something Spanish

A couple of samples collected from the Costa Brava a few weeks back, during a brief excursion following my niece's wedding. It's not beyond the realms of possibility one of these species could turn up in Glamorgan, the former more likely given it's occurrence in Monmouthshire. [NB both sample id's unverified]

Hedwigia ciliata var. leucophaea

Plasteurhynchium (Eurhynchium) meridionale